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From the Gallery

Defending anime amongst others

by Michael Nicolas, Dec 13th 2003

A little more than a year ago, I finally faced the type of situation many of us hope to face. Let me tell you about it.

In October of 2002 I went with my best friend to Washington DC. Yes, I was there at what turned out to be the finale of the sniper shootings. You see, my best friend has relatives down there, and I know them pretty well too. Our families go way back to before either of us were born. Even with all of the fear going around at the time, my friend desperately wanted to see them, and this had been planned for a while... but I digress.

My friend has an eight-year-old niece and a twelve-year-old nephew. One evening, their father, who knew of my heavy interest in anime, asked me out of the blue about Love Hina. He told me that the boy had been watching episodes of the series at a friend's place, and he wondered if it was okay for him to be doing that.

Now, I had for a long time been playing this scenario over in my head and felt I knew exactly what to say. So you would think it would have been easy for me to say that, even with some of its suggestive scenes, it was still okay for my friend's nephew to watch it. After all, he just about met the “13up” recommendation on it, and I had let my own sister (who was a few months younger) watch it. But it wasn't that easy, and there were other things that determined what I said to the boy's father and mother.

My friend and his family are very devout Pentecostal Christians. The way they deal with their faith is much stronger than how I'd deal with my own Catholic background. I really was impressed by that, especially when I spent a Sunday morning at a Pentecostal church. I knew that their their faith would influence their final decision. For example, I would not recommend EVA to them, it's heavy enough for those who aren't devoutly Christian.

My response, I felt, was a very honest one. I just told them that it was a charming and funny show, but it had its share of sexual innuendo, and that much of it is a culture thing. I also told them that although I let my sister watch it, but that in the end they are the parents and that they should make that final decision. They asked me about the types of scenes in the show, and I described some of the scenarios on the show (yes, the hot spring scenes).

I don't think it would surprise you to know that they felt their son wasn't ready to watch Love Hina. The boy for his part was a little upset at their decision, but he knew he could go over to his friend's place to watch it.

Knowing that I wouldn't convince them to let their son watch Love Hina, I decided not to go any further. I never strongly pushed my beliefs in terms of anime on them, and I know many of you might say I chickened out, scared by the notion that they would think badly of me and view me as morally depraved. I won't deny that this crossed my mind. But think about it, we as anime fans are very protective of our hobby and would take any offence to anyone who would not only question it, but ram that opinion down our throats. The worst thing we can do is to do the same thing when the roles are reversed. Especially when these guys more than respect your choices in your own everyday life.

I respect their choice in what they want their kids to watch. Parents have the tough task of preparing their kids for the realities of the world as they grow up, and this decision was their right. In return, they never questioned how I conduct my ways and choices for those around me.

This is not to say that my friend's relatives are censoring their kids. The father is a big video game player, much like the son. And they do have a lot of heavy games. All of us even watched a horror movie together (including the little girl). My point is that they keep an eye on what they play and watch. They are very active in that respect. I know what you're thinking here: in North America, violence is more acceptable than sex. I guess this is a real life example. But they are very loving parents, make no mistake. They want to prepare their kids for the world at a pace that they feel lets them do it effectively. I tend to believe that was the determining factor in their decision not to let their son watch Love Hina. That is true positive parenting. In the end it isn't about one being more morally depraved than another, but two sides with differing opinions and priorities.

Hey, anime is a mature hobby... where have I heard that one before?

Just to finish up, let me also give you a sense of what the mood was like in the Washington DC area at the height of the sniper fear. Contrary to what you might have seen in the news, it was still a fairly relaxed atmosphere. We stayed in Alexandria, Virginia just minutes away from Falls Church (where one of the later shootings happened), and we even had lunch in Rockville, Maryland (where the initial ones happened). But it's very tough to deny the fact that it was still pretty unsettling. I could still remember my friend driving through the streets of Alexandria as we arrived there late on that October night. We were brave enough to go, but still scared enough to keep our heads low in our car. It's interesting now to think of this as the trials of the suspects continue.

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